Divergent Books

Y'all know how I'm in a book club?  Well, my book club's pick for January was Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I bought the book on Monday, finished it that night, and tonight I finished the trilogy.

I have to vent about these books, though.  Have to.  Only one other book club member read the rest of them AND SHE WON'T ANSWER MY TEXTS.

So, fair warning, if you plan on reading the books and have not done so already, you can just close out of this page.  Because I am about to give away a lot of spoilers, especially about Allegiant.

If you've read them or don't care, then here we go:

Divergent:

I loved this one.  Loved it.  I mean, I read the entire thing in one setting.  I loved Tris, I loved her attitude, I loved seeing her grow and learn who she was, I loved her getting to know Four.  I loved learning about the factions, I loved the building confrontations and tensions between everyone.  I think it was a great base for a stellar storyline.

I loved it.  Five stars, no doubt.  I also watched the trailer for the movie a million times and am now in love with Theo James, who plays Four in the movie.

Really, though, I can't think of anything negative to say.

Insurgent:

I also read this in one sitting.  I loved it as well.  I loved how Tris and Tobias became stronger as a couple, but I didn't love how they were always ticked at one another or keeping secrets from each other.  That got kind of old real quick.  I realize they are teenagers and it is pretty typical of dumb teenage relationships, but these two are so much more than teenagers.  They should be able to work that mess out.

The fast pace of both books was part of the reason I had to read both in one sitting.  The momentum built as you read, and then throwing in curveballs from outta nowhere (Caleb, the secrets behind the factions' beginning, that sort of thing)- I could not put it down.

I gave it five stars as well, but I preferred Divergent to Insurgent.

Allegiant:

And then we get to this piece of junk.  Seriously.  I knew before I even started the Divergent books that Allegiant had some mixed reviews and people either hated it or loved it.

I hated it.  It didn't ruin the trilogy as a whole for me, but I am still reeling from how terrible the book was.

1. The separate point of views.  At first I thought this was going to be great- I'd get to "see" inside of Tobias' head.  But what came across in this last book was that he was SUCH A LOSER.  And by no means did I ever think he was a loser in the first two books.  He's such a crybaby now, he's so easily influenced by strangers (that whole situation with Nita) when he NEVER would have done that before.  And I know he got some crazy news about not being Divergent that supposedly affected his reactions, but AGAIN.  I don't think he would have cared about that news as much.  I mean, he never told Tris he was divergent until he was forced to.  If it mattered that much to him, I feel like he would have shared it.  I mean, he let her inside his fear landscape and told her about his father.

But he won't share that's he's Divergent?

Plus, he sounded exactly like Tris all throughout his chapters.  Several times I had to go back and check whose story I was reading.  They are obviously very similar in many ways, but they are definitely not twins.  Tobias, in my opinion, has always been the rational, thoughtful one.  He never came across that way in his POV parts.

I even felt like Tris' personality had changed.  All of a sudden, she's a relentless, cocky, my way or the highway type of girl.  I mean, she was always a little bit of that, but now, it's out in full force.

2. This whole genetics thing.  I'll be the first to admit I suck at that sort of science stuff.  At one point in every science class I took in high school, I was failing.  I actually did pretty decently in college physics and chemistry, but still.

But really?  That's the direction you wanna take the book in?  Maybe it's because science stuff still makes me feel stupid (honestly), but I didn't care about the outside world.  I didn't care about the genetically pure or damaged, even though it really could open up some interesting discussions.  How about what was happening inside the only world Tris and Tobias had ever known?  How about get that settled and worked out, you know the story that the first two books focused on?  That's the story that sucked me in the book, and that's the story I wanted to see wrap up.

It just all felt a little Truman Show/The Village to me.  And frankly, kind of a cop-out.  I got the feeling that Veronica Roth was at the point of "ummmmmm, how do I wrap this thing up, I didn't really think this through."

It shows, lady.  (Oh, and btw, I have mad respect for the author.  She is younger than me and still wrote a killer story, even if I hate how it ended.)

Girl, take notes from JK Rowling and plan your entire story out before you even begin writing it.

3. Tobias' reconciliation with his mother, and the subsequent turning over the reins of Chicago with no fighting.

YEAH RIGHT.  That woman was selfish and crazy from the get go.  And now because her son offers her a choice to have him or power, she just hands all that power over?

And then her and Joanna and Marcus come to a quick, painless, mutual agreement?  Absolutely not.  There is no way that would have ever happened.

4.  THE ENDING.  s;lkgjha;soighs;dvklsd;lksf

It did not surprise me, honestly.  I think it's ballsy of Veronica Roth to kill off her main character.

But still.  Yes, I am pissed.  Yes, I like justice and happy endings.  Yes, Caleb should have died and Tobias and Tris should have been able to live "happily ever after."

Even without all of that, though, there was no point in killing her off.  It solved nothing by that point.  It caused no one to learn anything about themselves.  It also made me cry, BUT WHAT DOESN'T?

I would have been happier if Tris and Tobias just broke up and drifted apart.  Like, she had to leave him for some reason.  A better self-sacrifice than volunteering to die when YOU JUST REALIZED A FEW WEEKS AGO YOU WANTED TO LIVE AND YOU DIDN'T WANT TO DIE.  Then, the epilogue could have been a reconnection or something like that, similar to the series ending of Will and Grace.  (And yes, I can relate most things back to Will and Grace.  Ask my small group.)

I don't know, I just feel like this book didn't fit the other two at all.  I want a re-do.  A complete re-do for book three.

So there.  My thoughts on Divergent.  PLEASE tell me if someone else feels the way I do?  I mean, I really could go on about this, but I've got to go to bed.  I stayed up way too late reading last night.

I'm out.